Tascam Announces Series 8p Dyna 8-channel Microphone Preamp

Tascam has unveiled the new Series 8p Dyna 8-channel mic preamplifier with analog compressor, the company's first standalone mic preamp and A-D expansion device. Featuring versatile connectivity and re-designed microphone preamp circuits, the Tascam Series 8p Dyna is designed for both studio and stage use, and a perfect expansion for the recently introduced 102i and 208i Series USB interfaces, both featuring powerful DSP input and output mixers.

Focusrite has enjoyed enormous success with its affordable range of USB Scarlett audio interfaces. From home and project studios to radio stations and anyone who needs a simple to use and reliable audio interface with good microphone preamps, the Scarlett range was the epitome for "good-enough" studio equipment from a respected brand. Now in its 3rd Generation, Focusrite updated the interface itself to USB 3.1 and using a USB-C connector and matched updated 24-bit audio circuits so they'll sound better than ever.

French software synthesizer and emulation experts Arturia have successfully transitioned to manufacturing hardware products, with a range of keyboard, controllers and even hardware synths that are unique in the industry and deserve high praise. In 2014, Arturia announced the company would introduce an audio interface, against the sound advice of... everyone. After two painful years, Arturia finally released its AudioFuse USB 2.0 desktop interface. Three years later, Arturia announced AudioFuse Studio, and AudioFuse 8Pre.

Sound Performance Labs (SPL) of Germany is now shipping their new “Crescendo” 8-channel microphone preamplifier featuring SPL’s unique120V technology. The “Crescendo” is the first microphone preamp operating with an internal voltage of 120V offering increased headroom for a much wider dynamic range to capture every detail in a recording microphone preamplifier that operates with an internal operating voltage of 120V.

This article by Ron Tipton details the design and construction of the TDL Model 401 high-performance microphone preamp, using a differential input stage that used compound transistor pairs with circuit resistance values, computer optimized for very low output noise. This is a great example of Ron Tipton's TDL Technology projects, which he managed from his home base in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Sadly, the audioXpress community lost one of its most esteemed and prolific writers. There's no better way to pay tribute to Ron than revisit some of these projects. This article was originally published in audioXpress, October 2002.

Heritage Audio just announced the new HA-73 EQX2 Dual Mic Amp/Equalizer, equipped with two mic pre/equalizers in the same rack unit to tender twice the mojo for less than twice the cost of its single-channel HA-73 EQ unit. Part of the company's premium processing Elite Series, the HA-73 EQX2 brings back the philosophy of the golden age of recording, adapted to the needs of today's studios while contributing to transitioning music into a new era in the process.

Building upon their range of studio monitors, Fluid Audio now announced the SRI-2 USB Recording Interface, a sturdy aluminum design with two class A microphone preamps and best-in-class digital converters, featuring a large volume knob to provide accurate control of the output level, and direct monitoring with zero-latency tracking. Given the studio monitor heritage of the San Diego-based company, the SRI-2 also doubles as a monitor switching box for two pairs of monitors, allowing to A-B compare the mix on two sets of speakers.

High-end studio processor manufacturer elysia announced availability of its new skulpter 500 sound shaping preamp — pushing its range of 500 Series recording hardware into another area of processing. According to the German company, the skulpter 500 is high quality recording preamp based on single resistors controlling a fully discrete Class-A amplifier capable of complementing any microphone or high-impedance instrumental source and adding two variable saturation/filter stages and an intelligent onboard compressor.

Ward-Beck is moving fast forward into fully IP convergence, and leading the way in audio networking implementation. At NAB 2018, the Canadian company unveiled its new preMO series of networked microphone preamps representing the convergence of analog audio, digital conversion, and IP based networking, creating completely new workflows. These new products rethink audio operations in the networking age, leveraging AES67 and ST2110 protocols, and AES70 for remote control.

"A good tutorial on interfacing microphones to soundcards." This was the brief description preceding Paul Loewenstein's article in the original edition of audioXpress. We think that's more to it. The author describes a microphone amplifier designed to interface a standard dynamic microphone to a soundcard or other computer microphone input with a 5V through 2.2kΩ bias to the microphone connector ring. This article was originally published in audioXpress, February 2008.